Australia 2025

Itoje: Lions need to be more clinical

Maro Itoje has called on The British & Irish Lions to be more clinical in attack after claiming they should have scored more points in their 36-24 win against ACT Brumbies.

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Maro Itoje has called on The British & Irish Lions to be more clinical in attack after claiming they should have scored more points in their 36-24 win against ACT Brumbies.

The Lions scored five tries in Canberra through Ollie Chessum, James Lowe, Marcus Smith, Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier in an entertaining match.

However, they also made 10 handling errors, including late in the game with the ball five metres out, while Lowe and Van der Flier were unable to convert good opportunities.

That frustrated Itoje, who warned they must be ruthless when they take on Australia in the first Test of the series next weekend.

“I think it is a step forward,” he said after the win.

“Obviously, we left a few tries out there. We probably wanted to be a bit more clinical. We invited a lot of pressure back on ourselves. We want to be a bit more ruthless in that regard.

“We are happy with the win. Rugby is a tough sport, so you take the wins when they come. We know there is loads more, we know we can be better. That is the exciting opportunity for us.

“We have got another tough game on Saturday then the real fun begins. We just need to get better, tighter, we will learn from our errors and move forward.”

The Lions have one more match before the Test series starts and now head to Adelaide to take on Invitational Australia & New Zealand.

Head Coach Andy Farrell believes the Lions are in a good place but says there remains plenty of room for improvement.

“It was the same as the other games, there was some good stuff, especially in the first half. There was some nice, flowing attacking play that was played at a good tempo,” he said.

“On the flip side, we kept them in the game. We dominated field position, but we kept them in with a sniff, especially when you get over the line three times and do not convert them.

“Congratulations to the Brumbies, they came out of the blocks and stayed in the fight until the last minute. We just need to do our job properly. We have to look after ourselves first and foremost.

“The learnings from today and the last game is what is at the forefront of our minds. Someone landed on Blair’s [Kinghorn] knee. He is walking around so hopefully it is not serious.”

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